C.S.

On second thought, keep Black's midcard magic tricks far away from the World Champion.

The only bigger letdown than Lance Archer would be Brian Cage, so he's probably next. Woof, what a major step back from Bryan Danielson. I realize they can't all be the American Dragon, but I agree that Black would have been much better for the big man TV challenger role (and I don't even think all that much of Black).

Did Jericho drop a ton of weight or does that shirt just flatter him? (If it's the latter, where can I get one?!?!)

IMO, Hangman vs. MJF will happen soon, and that's where Wardlow's turn will take place, finally getting fed-up enough and costing MJF the match. I agree with @NintendoLogic that all this talk of a short Hangman reign is (probably) utter nonsense.

I totally forgot this was happening. Cody's Covid diagnosis really put a damper on the show (which is no one's fault, obviously). I love Dustin, but the Interim Champ bit is hokey at best. Sammy needs to turn back heel ASAP. Also: The wrong person won.

I like MJF, but I kinda hope this isn't what happens. Feels way too soon and way too forced. I'd ideally like MJF to continue building up a reputation and increasing his resume of solid matches for a couple more years. I'm not sure who should dethrone Hangman, but I don't think it should happen for a while.

Is this free to watch or do you need some kind of subscription?

The one 2.0 guy's face is kinda square-ish - I guess that's the extent of the "insult."

Our best hope is that Jericho is self-aware - like he claims he was during his deathly bad WWE "rooty tooty booty" phase (or whatever that dumb catchphrase was) - and this is setting up another evolution.

Your point doesn't make much sense when: 1. WWE mentioned the competition constantly in the Attitude Era. 2. Mentioned it again a couple of years ago with Triple H's "pissant company" remark. No one is being brainwashed here.

I might be giving too much credit here, but I wonder if Jericho's deer in the headlights/feigned interest is purposely setting up something between the new champs and The Inner Circle's Santana and Ortiz.

Did the lights just go out again?

Was Marko Stunt quietly let go?

Scorching hot take. I disagree 100%. If you're measuring him up against other high flyers, well, no, but he was a tremendous wrestler. His heel work in the Hollywood Blonds and in ECW/WWE Attitude Era is the stuff of legends, but he was a great fiery underdog babyface too.

Felt like a botch. I'm hoping we weren't supposed to be impressed by that hocus pocus of Malakai suddenly teleporting halfway out of the ring, or whatever that was.

Yeah, what should have been a blood feud was approached by Pillman Jr. with an aww shucks earnest babyface routine. All wrong. He's still greener than grass, but I do see a sliver of potential him. I see more in Griff Garrison though.

Agreed. I thought that would be considered a hot take, but it shouldn't be IMO. They've been building up Jade for over a year, and Ruby was - as much as we love her, let's face it - a WWE jabroni. Much better and more compelling story to be told with Ruby falling short in both of her major AEW title matches and seeing how she can come back from that.

This AEW fan thinks it's boring and pointless. I don't want to get into a deep argument with the owner of the board we all love, so I'll just say I'm not sure that's the reason why wrestling was at its hottest. Plus, what seemed "cool and edgy" 20 years ago has been done to death. I'm not a WWE stan by any means, but it takes me completely out of the show when they start shoehorning in "Wrestlemania" references and the like when they don't fit at all. It made sense for Punk's first promo back. Time to move on now... Probably not, but it's distracting as all hell (IMO). Of course, so is Jericho's faux Attitude Era throwback character, or whatever the hell that's supposed to be.

No it isn't. It's a WWE show. A few non-fans probably do know it as a catch-all term, but you're deep, deeper, drowning in the bubble if you think it has anything other than the barest mainstream recognition these days.

They can reference the past without blatantly promoting another product.

Why the hell are they mentioning WrestleMania over and over? Totally bush league.

Are you asking if Hangman is the 2nd wrestler to kick out of the knee? Wasn't sure...

I did too. Went 30+ minutes but didn't feel like it. As good as the first match was, you felt that hour.

Shorter but much sweeter match.